This is based on Camilla Panjabi's recipe. The only variations were, not using
any cloves (that she mentioned in the recipe but not in the ingredients list --
a possible erratum?) and using pre-cooked lamb. I got the lamb from the
butcher, a large leg joint on the bone. I stewed the entire joint for an hour
and a half in a large pot, with some curry powder & balti masala for flavouring,
which I presume didn't form a large part of the flavour of this dish itself, but
I thought that since I plan to reuse the stock I may as well infuse something
into it. The meat slid off the bone rather easily after that, with small pinker
patches inside after cutting.

This curry has the singular innovation of creating the cumin-flavoured potatoes
first: you saute a big handful of cumin seeds and shallow-fry whole small
potatoes to give them a crispy skin on the outside. It looks very attractive
when finished. The cumin clings to the outside of the potato. Then later you
submerge these in curry liquid and boil them for about 10 minutes. This gives
whole potatoes that are still firm to the palate. I also used large chunky sea
salt on these potatoes.

The rest of it is rather standard. I didn't use a curry base for this one
because I had ran out, so the onions are reduced from scratch. The first thing
I noticed is what a long time it takes to get the onions the correct colour. It
took nearly a whole hour. That's the real benefit of using the base, IMO, the
time differential; there's probably not any large flavour benefit from a curry
base, perhaps there's even a flavour deficit.

This one strangely has garam masala formed into a paste and added relatively
early in cooking, which is somewhat of a departure.

I look forward to using this meat & potatoes pattern in the future; potatoes are
great cupboard stock because they're cheap and last for ages. When you can boost
the bulk and variation of a curry by this addition, everybody wins.